


Borrowed Time

by Browa123



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Borrowers Fusion, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Giant/Tiny, You all had that entire shrinking scene in Q and no one else did this?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:14:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25090696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Browa123/pseuds/Browa123
Summary: Yu Narukami knew well how the world worked. When a human spots a borrower, they must leave before they are caught.Separated from his family in the city, Yu soon comes to realize that a great mystery has been imposed on him, and he may have to overcome his and others fears to solve it.
Relationships: To be added later
Comments: 16
Kudos: 58





	1. When A Human Spots A Borrower...

“Found ya, you little shits…”

Yu feels his blood go cold as the booming voice looms over him. He feels his family go stiff around him as the world that was once shaking ceases it's movements, a heavy silence bringing white noise to his ears.

Time seems to stand still as Yu slowly realizes what's happening. They had been spotted.

The human looming over them, giant and dangerous with its beady, soulless eyes grips the floorboard it had ripped up as it stares down at the helpless, tiny souls it had discovered.

The time for affixing blame to whoever may have led it here had long since passed. It's far too late to stop what had been put into motion.

Yu looks to his mother and father as the world holds its breath.

“...run,” his father whispers to him. “Don't look back.”

The words sear his soul as time is brought back back to alarming speeds, the giant monster reaching its hand into the nook he called home.

He runs.

The world begins to move again, the ground shaking as his feet hit the ground, the human roaring something unintelligible and loud as he tries to find some sort of cover.

His heart pounding loudly in his ears, Yu leaps out an open window, throwing forward the grappling hook he'd crafted in his spare time, an essential tool for someone of his height.

After all, when a teen that's four inches tall is jumping out a window a few feet up, it pays to be prepared.

The fish hook, tied to a piece of old thread, sails awkwardly through the air before catching on one of the window ledges further along the building. Using the few precious seconds he had, he ties his end of the line to his arm and swings.

The rope sways under and around the ledge, bringing Yu to the other end of the wooden plank.

Moments later, the window he had leaped from bursts open, the giant that had attacked looking around and screaming obscenities with a clenched fist. Yu can only hope it didn't catch anyone, human hands are deadly traps to a borrower.

Still, it isn't safe here. He can only take a few steep breaths before pressing his back against the window pane, slowly reeling his hook back in, and trying ever so carefully not to make too many motions with every pull.

The look in the human's eyes burned at his brain, the dead yet ecstatic look. The look of a terrible monster hiding behind some immaculate suit. A look he'd never forget.

After it shouts a few more curses to the air, the monster turns around and heads back into the office it had torn up.

Shaking his head, Yu gathers his bearings and sets the hook up on the edge of the window. He swiftly slides down the side of the building, using the windows as holds. Falling to his death after such a narrow escape is not in his best interests right now.

Just as he's thinking of new places to try and forge a new home, the sound of tires snap him out of his thoughts as a human vehicle pulls up in the driveway of the building. It's a rusty green and rather large, but what really catches his eye is the storage space in the back.

Whatever human owned it wouldn't mind if he hitched a ride now, wouldn't they…?

Another calculated leap, and Yu lands quietly on the roof of the vehicle. Sliding into the open storage space, he maneuvers to the back and turns himself between a few crates to stay hidden.

Of course, he'd miss his parents, and the other borrowers he'd been acquainted with in that office, but this is just how life for his kind is.

When a human spots a borrower, a once safe home becomes a cage and a trap. Stories told to children to keep them on their best behavior detailed the dangers of exterminators, or being crushed, locked in jars…

Once a borrower has been seen, they must leave. Staying only leads to certain death in those terrible hands, one way or another.

Yu hears the engine of the truck roar to life under him. He wraps his hook around his arm, leaving the sharp end attached to his belt.

"You might not want to sit there once this thing is moving." 

A hand, one belonging to an unfamiliar borrower, reaches down to help him out of his crawlspace, pulling him up and out of the area between the crates. At that moment, the truck jerks while turning, sliding the two heavy boxes behind him, crashing loudly.

Yu and the stranger, a borrower dressed in both red and white, silver hair passed their shoulders, both sharing a look before chuckling awkwardly.

"Thank you," Yu tells the stranger, giving the hand he's gripping a proper shake for the sake of politeness. It's the least he could do after they saved his life like that.

"No trouble at all! Nothing like meeting another freeloader around here," the other grins warmly. "I only caught the back of that escape, you got some serious skill for someone your age."

"I certainly don't plan on staying here too long. It's… too close to another human after that encounter to be honest. But I suppose I'll keep you company as repayment for saving my life a moment ago," Yu decides, releasing the handshake.

The stranger nods. "No trouble at all. If you need a place to rest, there's a pillow a few crates in. I think it's going to some department store from what the human was saying."

Come to think of it… he did feel a bit dizzy. Perhaps a rest would be nice, even if just for a little bit. Escaping a life and death situation and being dragged away from home certainly had taken a lot out of him...

"I'll take you up on that. Please wake me before this package is set to arrive, if you'd be so kind," Yu agrees, stumbling up the box and atop one of the plush pillows. He takes to sleeping easily as he lies on the soft surface.

The soft rattling and rumbling of the truck’s engine continue as Yu sleeps on the pillow. Despite the hardships that lead to him to separate from his family and leave home, he couldn’t have asked for a better outcome to the first moments away…

Comforted by bittersweet memories at the edge of his vision, the sleeping borrower traverses deeper into his own dreams.

“...Welcome to the Velvet Room.”

The voice causes Yu to slowly begin stirring as it takes up the world around him. Sitting up, he appears to be standing on some sort of table. Cards surround him, wreathed in almost a cold blue, as indigo walls surround him.

Idly, he can still hear the engine of the truck he’d fallen asleep in. The room still has the slight bounce as a result of the moving mechanics within the vehicle, but everything changed from what it once was.

He looks around the “Velvet Room” confused as ever. A low chuckling follows his antics.

“Do not be alarmed. You are fast asleep within the real world.”

Yu certainly doesn’t feel like he’s asleep. Although the atmosphere of calm about it. Is this really a dream?

“This is a space that exists between dream and reality, mind and matter,” the voice seems to answer his thoughts.So it is a dream, but it isn’t. Yu doesn’t know if he can grasp what’s really happening here…

“Only those who have entered into a Contract may enter this room. So, it appears that you have an intriguing destiny before you,” the mysterious voice tells him. Yu has no memory of making any contracts to allow him access here, but he guesses this enigmatic place has equally mysterious ways of working.

As he looks about from his perch on top of the table, a large figure suddenly appears on the couch. Yu jumps back in fright at seeing a human, so close to nearly being caught by the other one a while earlier.

“My name is Igor,” the strange human with a particularly prominent nose looks down on him. “I am the master of this Velvet Room.”

Finding himself speechless as the voice’s true identity, Yu can only stare up at the figure. The voice wasn’t condescending at all, and rather welcoming if a bit… well, nasally, is the word for it. 

...why is its nose so big? Is that normal for a human?

Probably not. Yu knows to avoid humans, but he at least can tell what a normal one looks like. Then, is the giant before him not a human? His mind is a jumbled mess…

“Has one such as yourself heard of fortune telling…?” Igor asks him. Yu can only blink quizzically up at the strange giant with deep confusion.

“The power to see into the future has been one sought for a long time. These cards act as a prediction, each with a different and symbolic meaning,” Igor elaborates. As he speaks, the arrangement of cards around him begin to glow.

They shuffle around a moment, before one flies into a face up position though a seeming sense of will. The face depicts a crumbling structure, looking as if it had been struck by the sky.

“... the tower, in the upright position,” Igor notes as the card turned up settles on the table, the glow leaving it. “This card represents the immediate future. It appears something important is going to happen.”

Another card flutters forth before being turned face up. It lands on the other side of the borrower standing on the table. This card appears to depict the moon, overlooking the sky on a calm night.

“...the moon, also in the upright position,” comments Igor, the lines in his face loosening with intrigue and surprise. “This card represents hesitation and mystery.”

An immanent future with hesitation and mystery…? Is that the future the cards have shown to him? So this is the fortune telling that Igor speaks of. Could these cards truly predict the future?

“It appears that once you arrive at your destination, a great mystery will force itself upon you,” Igor surmises. “If you are unable to solve the mystery, your future may be forever lost.”

Yu looks at the cards again. Clearly this Igor knew much more about understanding how these cards worked than he did. He shakes his head, all of this being too much to handle as he stares down at his feet, catching his reflection in the table.

Though as he stares down at himself, his eyes appear yellow in the odd lighting of the room.

“I should also introduce my assistant to you,” Igor mentions off-handedly before putting something else on the table. It appears to be an older woman with an off white hair color running past her shoulders.

The borrower, dressed in a blue-ish indigo, bows. “My name is Margaret. It is my duty to help you on the journey you will undertake. Though I’ll better explain my duties the next time we meet.”

Igor chuckles above the pair of borrowers. “Until we meet again….”

Before Yu has much time to think of what had just happened, a soft light overtakes his vision, before he finds himself staring up at the roof of the truck he was in.

Trying to collect his thoughts, the sound of sudden footsteps and the click of something being unlocked gets him up and alert in an instant.

Quickly, the young borrower makes his way deeper into the crate of pillows before he can be spotted by the humans opening the delivery truck.

“Thanks again,” a gruff human voice speaks. “With how far out we are, most delivery services are a bit slow on getting products to us… hey!”

The sound of shuffling as the covering on the back of the truck is opened. Yu tries to steady his breathing as the humans enter to take the packages.  
“Yosuke? Can you get the packages out of the back? I just want them moved to storage,” the voice calls again.

“Sure, fine dad, I’ve got ‘em,” a younger voice answers. The owner of it steps into the truck, their careless footsteps rattling the metal floor beneath them. The world begins shaking much more violently as the crate Yu is in, as well as one or two others are lifted off the ground.

Unable to see in the dark of the crate, he can only listen as the humans chatter about “products” and “consumers,” nonsense that humans talk about but Yu may never understand. Such concepts are foreign and mostly useless to others like him.

The crates shuffle a few times as they’re carried, the human grunting now and again as they adjust their grip. Still buried in pillows and other bedding within the crate, Yu is left to imagine what the world around him will be like when he can find a time to safely leave the confines of the small box.

Would the building be large or small? Would there be other borrowers around? Can he provide for himself now that he’d been separated from his family? A million what ifs and scenarios twirl in his head as he waits, the darkness only further stirring his mind.

The crates and the one carrying them finally come to a stop after a few moments, the swift sinking feeling of falling before the thud of the crates hitting the ground lasting only seconds. At least it was a crate full of pillows.

“Yosuke! Can you come help stock the shelves? We can take it from here!” calls the voice again. The careless footsteps of the human pick up again, but instead fade into the distance, leaving the crates and their contents unattended.

A moment of silence.

After all, the best way to gauge if a human is present is to listen for them. They could be obnoxiously loud, even down to the sound of their breathing. Never subtle in anything they did, which was fortunate for the tiny community that lived right under their noses…

The sound of ventilation in the area hums, but nothing seems to come of it. Wagering it to be safe, Yu crawls his way out of the pile of pillows and pokes his head out of the crate.

Left… right… nothing around. Yu uses the planks of wood to slowly descend from the inside of the box and onto the ground. Still, this wasn’t the time to be tardy. A human could back at any second and put him in danger.

Stepping as lightly as he can manage, Yu makes his way to the walls of the room. It’s still a bit dark, so he feels his way along, seeing if he can spot a way inside, or any holes left by any other borrowers around.

Yu eventually makes it to the vent, taking a peek inside. The air is cool against his face as the vent continues to hum lowly with its working mechanics. Vents like this are a good thing, easy access to the building, and their constant noise would mask any smaller sounds.

“Huh. You seem to be a new face,” a voice greets him from deeper inside. The silhouette of an adult borrower makes itself known as they step out of the concealed hole further in the vent.

Thank goodness. Up to now, Yu was dreading having to live by himself from now on. He approaches the stranger with relief, finding them to be an older man dressed in grey.

“You sneak in with the newest shipment?” The man asks him, to which Yu nods. This brings a smile to the other’s face.

“We get that a lot. Hitching rides where humans can’t see you is a pretty effective plan. Though most don’t stay around here this long, too many humans for their liking…” he suddenly stops himself. “Ugh, I almost forgot my manners. My name’s Ryotaro Dojima.”

“Yu Narukami,” Yu introduces back, holding out a hand to shake. Dojima takes it eagerly with a wider smile.

“Narukami, huh? I think I might just know your parents,” Dojima mentions. “We lived together once upon a time, I was your mother’s younger brother…”

“Come to think of it, your name does sound familiar,” Yu replies in earnest. It appears that through luck alone he’s come across family in this strange new place.

“Suppose that settles it then,” Dojima decides. “Hey, why don’t you stay with us? Nanako could use a new friend around the place.”

Yu gives Dojima a nod. It’s good to know he won’t have to carve a place out himself with a flimsy fish hook. Settling down after a long trip sounded amazing.

With that, Dojima leads Yu through the vent and into the area owned by many, many other borrowers.

Dojima explained everything he could as they walked. This building was apparently called “Junes” by the humans, and it was a department store. There were much more humans than one’s typical dwelling, but they mostly were all gone when the store closed.

The store being empty left it ready for borrowing trips, with plenty of things to be gathered. Food, clothing, bedding, other bits and knacks that were abundant around the place. An acquired style of living, but very prosperous by borrower standards.

It probably explained why so many had taken up residence in the store. Every part of the store was teeming with borrower made structures, some even having specialties with how long their families had been living within the walls.

“Over there is the Tatsumi family. They mostly deal with making clothing,” Dojima mentions, waving to a kindly elder sitting out in front of the store. A shape moves around in the back, appearing rather tall for a borrower as it wields a large sewing needle with multiple threads around it.

“Kanji really has come into his own back there,” Dojima mentions. “He’s got a real nack for sewing, even to the point of being able to mimic the things humans wear. It’s all the rage with kids your age, so you might want to check it out.”

They continue walking though the “shopping district” as the borrowers had coined it, and headed to the back wall of Junes, a sign out front welcoming the pair to the “Amagi Inn.”

A young girl dressed in red bows in welcome. “Welcome back, Dojima-san. Did your trip to the back go well?”

“Well, I didn’t pick up anything, but I met someone new who stowed away on the last shipment,” replies Dojima. He turns back to Yu. “This is Yu Narukami. He’ll be staying with Nanako and I for the foreseeable future.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Yu greets.

“Yukiko Amagi. My family runs the living area around here. We like to call it the Amagi Inn,” Yukiko introduces. “What brings you here?”

“Well, I’m sure you know what happens when a human spots you… I had to leave after we got seen and stuff…” Yu trails off as he remembers the incident yesterday.

“You had to leave when a human spotted you, huh?” Something unreadable makes its way onto Yukiko’s face as she speaks. “That’s… unfortunate.”

She shakes her head. “Well, I’ll let everyone know that you're moving in with the Dojimas. I hope you settle in well.”

As she walks inside, Dojima hums. “Spotted, huh?”

“It was a detective,” Yu tells him. “I don’t know how long it was on our trail, but you know how it is.”

“I get you. Detectives are nothing but trouble for borrowers with their keen eyes. I hope your parents are alright at least,” relents Dojima, as he looks off to the side for a while.  
“Come on, I better introduce you to Nanako.”

Dojima leads him to a small residence down a hallway, opening the door. “Nanako, I’m home! And I brought a surprise!”

A young girl in a pink shirt and skirt turns around the corner, her eyes widening as she takes in the fact that her father had brought an unfamiliar face with him. She takes a step back and hides behind the door frame.

“It’s alright, there’s no need to be scared,” Dojima chuckles. “This is your cousin. He just moved in from really far away.”

Nanako continues to silently stare from the doorway, looking rather untrusting of Yu.

Dojima leads the new face into the small home. “I’ll have to gather a few things to get you a proper bed, but for now make yourself at home.”

Another nod from Yu, who finds his gaze wandering to the suspicious Nanako. He tilts his head and shoots her a smile, to which she averts her gaze.

“What are you so shy for?” Dojima asks her. She smacks him in the thigh and runs upstairs.

Yu and Dojima share a look for a moment, and Dojima sighs, moving to sit at the table. It’s made from a box holding a deck of cards.

“I guess she just doesn’t like new people,” the man sighs. “Give it some time, I’m sure she’ll warm up to you eventually.”

Yu joins Dojima at the table, looking around. The place is quaint, yet homey. It’s a good change of pace compared to the whirlwind the past two days had been.

“I guess I should go over the rules here, since life here is a bit different compared to how most borrowers handle things,” Dojima explains, turning to Yu as they sit at the table.

“I’m sure you know the basics, but you should really stay inside the walls until closing hours. There will be plenty of time to borrow when there’s no humans in the store. They do frequent this place until closing hours, so even if it's safe one moment, it can change.”

“If you ever get lost, just know that we’re in the Electronics Department. The back door there leads to where they sell the Tvs, and it’s behind one of those cardboard cutouts they have that typically reads “sale”. Just lift the flap and it should lead you back here.”

“And finally, when borrowing things, you better stick to things on the backs of shelves or concealed by other items. They’re the least likely to be noticed if they go missing.”

Yu saves the things that Dojima says with a nod of confirmation. He’d rather not get caught again and put everyone in danger. With such a large gathering, adhering to everyone’s schedule will be crucial as time goes on.

Still, despite every sudden change, Yu feels he’ll like it here once he settles in.


	2. Worries and Rumors

The night was rather quiet as Yu took a vacant room upstairs. All things considered, he’s settled into this department store town rather nicely.

Sure, he missed his parents, but he really had no other choice. At least Dojima was nice enough to let him stay, regardless if they were related or not. He also learned he wasn’t the only new arrival in town.

A young woman known as Mayumi Yamano had arrived a week prior to himself, and she was still the talk of the town with her odd mannerisms and the like. Yu could only suspect that he’d be experiencing much of the same after a while of walking around.

As he heads down the stairs, he can see Dojima and Nanako seated at the breakfast table. Breakfast seems to already be served, a few miniature cookies from a busted bag.

“I found it had fallen off the shipment and broken open. It should do us some good for a while,” Dojima tells Nanako as she munches on her cookie. She’s still looking at Yu suspiciously, though it’s a bit more relaxed than last night.

Yu attempts to smile again, but she only draws closer to her father.

“What’s wrong, Nanako?” Dojima turns to his daughter with a bit of concern, but it’s clear he’s lost about how to treat such a young soul in this situation.

“He’s strange…” mumbles Nanako, still giving Yu a side eye.

He carefully sits across from Nanako, taking one of the cookies for himself. Borrowers rarely can take more than leftovers no matter where they live after all. Things like a hot meal are practically forbidden, seeing as a human would probably still be close by if it was still at a pleasurable temperature.

Things like those were just too much of a risk.

“Well, he is new… maybe he just needs to get used to this place first…” Dojima pauses a moment. “Oh, here’s an idea… why not visit the Tatsumi family?”

“We passed by them yesterday, correct?” Yu replies, tilting his head.

“Yeah, that was them. They make outfits, clothing for everyone here. They live near the clothing department so the loose threads are plentiful there. It’s rather comfortable compared to anything I can stitch together. I’d suggest giving it a shot,” elaborates Dojima.

“I see. I suppose I’ll go and visit them after breakfast,” Yu decides. He bites into the cookie, taking in the sweet flavor. He didn’t get many foods like this back where he used to live…

Nanako continues watching the new arrival suspiciously, but eventually continues eating her own breakfast and relaxing just a little bit more.

Breakfast is a quiet affair, aside from the few announcements, and the rumbling of footsteps outside as humans look at the wares of the store, the catchy jingle playing over the speakers.

“Every Day’s Great At Your Junes!” Nanako mimics the announcement, she and Dojima both must hear it all the time when the store is open. At least she seems to enjoy the song.

“Well, on that note, I’m going over to the grocery aisle to pick up dinner for tonight. You want me to drop you off at the Tatsumi’s on my way over?” Dojima offers, shooting Yu a smile as he gets up from his seat.

“Sure, that sounds fine to me,” Yu agrees, taking to standing himself. “Will Nanako be okay by herself?”

“It’s quite alright, she’s excellent at watching the house while I’m out borrowing. Aren’t you, Nanako?” Dojima turns to her with a reassuring smile. She nods lightly with that.

“That’s good. Your cousin and I will be back soon,” Dojima assures, before leading Yu out of the residence and toward the clothing department.

The same, kindly woman from before sits out in front of the store, with the more stocky borrower still in the back, wielding the sewing needle with ease despite the object’s size compared to him.

Yu could tell that the borrower’s back was hunched over, probably due to years sitting in front of the same sewing table, practicing their technique with that very same needle.

“Hello, do you mind if I drop him off here? He’s new, so I figured he’d need a new outfit to help him get more accustomed to life here,” Dojima asks the lady outside the store.

Yu however, is more interested in watching the other borrower work, the limited perspective making him curious as the figure in the back moves around the fabric and threads, probably all picked up around the clothing department when things come loose.

“No trouble at all,” the lady replies to Dojima’s question. “Kanji is still working on his latest request at the moment, but I’m sure we can put in a request for a new outfit.”

On closer inspection, the fabric in question is being worked into what appears to be an ornate blanket, red with a white petaled pattern being knitted and sewn together with each fluid motion the stocky borrower makes.

“Kanji, dear? We have guests!” The woman, who must be Kanji’s mother, calls to the borrower in the back, who stands from his work and maneuvers his way over to the pair waiting outside. Yu’s earlier presumption about the hunch in his back is proven true as the borrower hobbles over to them.

“Yeah?” Kanji asks, his tone gruff.

“This young man is new in town, and Mr. Dojima was wondering if you could get him fitted in a new outfit. I know you’re busy with that Yamano’s request, but the poor dear must be itching rather badly in the clothes he’s wearing,” Kanji's mother explains.

Come to think of it, he is feeling rather stuffy, and the clothes everyone around him seemed to be wearing were a lot less frayed. Did Kanji make all of these…?

“Alright, just follow me to the back. I’ve got a few examples back there, and we can get you fitted and measured in just a few minutes,” Kanji sighs, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well then, I better go get some dinner. I’ll be back to pick you up in a bit,” Dojima sighs with a wave, before heading deeper into the nooks of Junes.

Yu follows Kanji into the back of the place, the taller borrower lumbering about as they reach a place where many different kinds of outfits are hanging up by some bent paper clips. Each has the kind of care put into them only profession and practice could achieve.

“Did you make all of these?” he finds himself asking as he looks through the racks for something he might like to wear. The mimicking of human-like styles is one to one despite the limited amount of material a borrower would usually get.

“Yeah? So what if I did?” Kanji grunts in turn, causing Yu to jump a bit with the aggressive tone of voice. “Knowing how to sew is an important skill for borrowing, you know?”

“I didn’t mean any offence, actually the skill in these is really impressive,” Yu compliments in turn. Perhaps the fact that Kanji sews instead of being the one actually borrowing is a soft spot for him…

“Oh, well, good, I guess,” Kanji sighs. “Look, just pick one you like and I can get it fitted for you, just need to measure a few things first to make sure it’s comfortable.”

As Yu browses the styles, Kanji pulls out a few lengths of thick, white string. He then readies his sewing needle, one of many he has stored away with the string, sharpened more than the others.

“Alright, see something ya like?” Kanji asks, sizing up the sharper needle and testing the edge on one of the strings, cutting it in two.

“Yes, this one here,” Yu pulls up a suit, that which includes a collared jacket with pants and shirt. He holds it against his chest to see how it might look on him.

“Heh, certainly looks like your style. Come on, this next part’s the more difficult one,” Kanji replies, leading Yu in front of a large piece of broken glass hidden in the back, acting like that of a mirror.

Kanji starts measuring Yu with the string, using the sharpened sewing needle to cut off the lengths once he’s satisfied with them. Strings wrap around his arms, legs and waist before being chopped to the desired length, Kanji staying silent as he works.

“Alright, that’s the last one,” he finally sighs as he removes the last, loose string around his neck, a needed measure for the collar of Yu’s new suit. “Just give me a few days, I’ll get around to fixing you up your new clothes once my other request is finished.”

“Thank you, Tatsumi-san,” Yu replies with a bow.

‘Hey, no need to be formal, pal. You’re probably older than me anyway. Just call me Kanji,” replies the other borrower with a chuckle, though it fades into a light awkwardness after a while.

"Well, uh, Kanji, thank you for working on this for me," Hi finally finds it in him to correct himself, coughing into his fist to clear the air a bit.

"No prob," Kanji rummaged around with his sewing needles and stings, before pulling out a spare needle. "Here. This might help you defend yourself against any mice that might wander in here."

"It's alright, I don't need a weapon-" Yu starts, but Kanji cuts him off by shoving the needle into his hands.

"You say that now, but you're gonna learn real quick how inconvenient the curve of that fish hook of yours is in a fight. You don't have to angle a sewing needle like this to aim for weak spots like heads or legs," Kanji elaborates.

Yu takes the needle, looking over the supposed weapon with a critical eye. Perhaps with a bit of practice he could get used to the new blade. Cockroaches and the like are a pain to deal with in smaller buildings, but an entire department store is sure to have plenty of attempted break ins…

“It’s much appreciated, I’ll take good care of it,” Yu decides, tying the string from his hook around his waist and putting the needle through, attaching it to his hip.

“Alright, if you ever need it sharpened, you can drop by any time. There’s a bunch of stuff humans leave lying around that make good weapons. You gotta defend yourself in this world, or you might end up crushed,” Kanji rubs the back of his neck with a sigh as he speaks.

“Hey, I’m back!” Dojima’s voice calls into the nook.

“Thank you for the chat, Kanji-kun. I look forward to seeing the finished product,” Yu smiles in the direction of the other borrower.

“Hey, no prob, man! I’ll drop it off when it’s done,” Kanji waves in turn as Yu begins leaving the fabric filled nook. Dojima waits outside, a stitched satchel full of things taken from around the more empty parts of the store.

“Did you have fun?” Dojima prods as they walk home. Yu nods and Dojima smiles in turn as they head down the foamy corridors.

“You hear the latest rumors?” a voice whispers.

“About that Yamano borrower?” another replies. It seems a few borrowers are gossiping further away. If Yu remembers correctly, the one they’re referring to got here just a bit before he did.

There’s a bit of whispering he can’t make out, though there’s a few gasps of the few in attendance to the conversation.

“Really? A human?”

“An affair….?”

“Nonsense, if that was true, the human would have been led right to us!” a sceptical borrower adds to the conversation. “You know how those things are, once something has caught their curiosity, they chase it down and try to make sense of it.”

Yu knew that one all too well. If it wasn’t the case, he wouldn’t be here right now. That detective at the police department would have never spotted him, and he wouldn’t have had to run away from the place and separate from his family.

Yu wanted nothing to do with humans for a long, long time. So, he does his best to tune out the petty gossip on the subject as he follows Dojima home.

Nanako waits in the doorway, still a bit timid of Yu as both return to the quaint section run by the Amagi family. Dojima produces a chocolate chip from the bag of things he gathered and hands it to his daughter, who smiles at the sight.  
While Nanako munches away on the treat, Dojima kicks off his shoes and sits down on the couch with a sigh.

“I swear, those humans working in that department get more and more sharp when I go to borrow there,” he mumbles to himself, before a sardonic smirk meets his lips. “Maybe it’s just me who’s losing my edge…”

Nanako moves across the room toward the back door after a moment, peeking out behind the sign as the televisions continue playing preview shows and the like. Every screen has a different program to showcase each one’s capabilities.

“Don’t go sticking your head out too far,” Dojima warns her.

“But I wanna watch the Featherman guys!” Nanako complains. She continues insistently staring at a certain screen showing a group of colorfully dressed characters doing various things within the world behind the glass.

Yu typically didn’t see shows like this back where he was from. Living at a police department, what was usually running was the news. It seemed almost everything in this place was more bubbling and lively than the dull grey of the department he grew up in.

“You can watch,” Dojima relents. “Just stick your head back in if you see any humans. You know they’re dangerous.”

“I know…. Mom would still be here if they weren’t…” Nanako whimpers.

With her disheartened mumbling comes an awkward silence, Dojima going stiff at the mention of such a thing. It doesn’t take a genius to piece together why it’s only the two of them living here and not three…

Even with the bustle and jingling of the department store’s music, the thick tension seems to have muffled everything in regards to being upbeat and cheerful. The life had been sucked out of the room in that moment.

Nanako moves back inside, hanging her head. “Nevermind…”

The young girl moves up to her room, shutting the door behind her with a resounding echo. 

Dojima himself doesn't linger in the living room much longer, listlessly getting up off the couch and moving upstairs himself to go ruminate.

Left alone in the living room, Yu moves to the back door to get a bit more space. The air had become cramped with the sudden tension and even a bit more space might clear his head a bit in regards to everything.

Peeking out from behind the sign, he jumps back a bit seeing two humans in the electronics department, having a discussion.

“So, what kind of TV are you in the market for, miss?” says the first one, auburn hair falling to just above his shoulders while a pair of headphones hang around his neck.

“I dunno, really. I’m thinking something cheap if you’ve got it,” replies the other, short haired and dressed in a green jacket.

The former leads the latter around the electronics department a while, soon saying something that gets the pair of them bickering. Yu can’t find it in him to care what they have to say, the trifles of humans have nothing to do with him or his interests, especially after that suffocating conversation.

That is, until the one in the jacket says something that catches his attention.

“Speaking of TVs… have you tried that trick I told you about yet?” there’s a bit of childish excitement to the tone of her voice as she talks to the other.

“What, that Midnight Channel thing? You’re still on about that?” sighs the boy in exasperation. “You told me you haven’t even tried it yourself yet. Why should I?”

“Come on, Yosuke! You gotta be in this with me! I heard someone say they saw something the last time it rained! It’s gonna rain again tonight so we have to!” begs the jacketed human.

Yu shakes his head. It has nothing to do with him, and he’ll just get spotted if he keeps eavesdropping like this. He sticks his head back into the house and walks away.

The tension in the air seems to linger for the rest of the day, and an unease begins washing over him. He feels like something bad is going to happen soon, though he doesn’t know what caused him to feel this way.

The silence reigns through the night, Yu finding himself staring at the ceiling in his room rather than getting any sleep.

Morning comes and goes much the same as yesterday, though the unease in Yu’s gut doesn’t let up as he moves about the house. Dojima had already left to go borrowing by the time he’d woken up, leaving him alone with Nanako.

She has her head sticking out behind the sign again, though rather than watch the Featherman show she was trying to yesterday, she seems to be staring at a different screen.

“Is something wrong?” Yu asks Nanako, who turns to face him. She looks puzzled, like she doesn’t understand what’s going on.

“That lady on the big TV over there….” she mutters. “I’ve seen her before.”

Looking over at the television set Nanako indicated, it appears the news is what’s playing. Having seen the borders and logos a million times, Yu easily recognizes the news station. The title is as eye catching as ever for that particular channel.

“Nameless Corpse Found Hung In The Fog”

“It’s best to ignore it. Human news doesn’t concern us,” Yu tells Nanako, who’s finally begun warming up to him. Though she continues tilting her head in response to the question.

“That’s what I don’t get…” she hums. “I thought that lady was a borrower…”

Taking a sharp inhale, Yu looks back to the screen broadcasting the news on it. The corpse found by humans…it was a borrower’s? That didn’t make any sense, the hung body is clearly the size of a human’s!

“That lady, she came here just before you did,” Nanako continues. “What’s her name again? Yama… um… something like that…”

“Yamano? I’ve heard that name around,” Yu prods, to Nanako nodding in response.

“Yeah, that’s it! Did something bad happen to her? Everyone says she was gone all day yesterday…” Nanako grips at the sleeve of her outfit, looking nervous.

“I think something bad did happen to her,” Yu mutters darkly. If the title of the program is anything to go by, then that means that the woman is dead. Though why is she human sized? It seems impossible for a borrower to become a human…

Dojima opens the door a moment later, carrying a few less things than he did yesterday. “Are you both okay over here?”

“Dad? Do you know why a borrower is on the human news?” Nanako asks him instantly. Dojima stiffens again and joins the group looking out behind the sign. His own face pales watching the news himself.

“This doesn’t bode well… it must be the reason the humans are swarming in the store right now…” Dojima mutters.

“No one’s been spotted, have they?” Nanako asks, her eyes full of confusion and fear at the thought of it.

“If they have, not very many humans are acting on it. There would be more poking around at cracks in the store and there’d be a bit more panic,” Dojima sighs. He looks around the halls of the electronics department before dragging everyone back inside.

“What should we do about this?” Yu asks the older borrower, who runs a hand through his hair, anxiety in his features.

“Lay low for now,” Dojima orders. “Have your bags packed. If the situation changes, I want everyone to be able to leave immediately.”

Nanako nods, Yu follows suit. The anxiety in his own stomach begins building the more he thinks about it. A borrower found dead by humans, and because the corpse had been enlarged by whatever caused it, they believe her to be one of them.

Though, how? How had it gotten so large? Why the Yamano borrower in particular? What had killed her?

Yu is left to stew on the thoughts like those the rest of the day as he finds himself packing his things. It’s not as spur of the moment as his last escape, but already leaving after just making it here leaves a rock in his chest. He hopes it doesn’t come to that.

Night arrives and morning comes not long after, another sleepless night full of worry making it hard for Yu to think straight. The implications of what had happened has his head swimming, the looming threat of having to leave again not easing his worry at all.

A knock at the door breaks the cycle of troublesome thoughts, before Dojima calls him down from his bedroom.

Stretching with a yawn, he works the kinks out of his back as he heads toward the door, only to see Kanji taking up the frame.

“Hey,” he calls, a bit less energetic than he was yesterday.

“Hello Kanji-kun, it’s nice to see you,” greets Yu, forcing a smile for the sake of the other his age. It’s more like a grimace, though with the heavy atmosphere growing thicker, it’s hard for anyone to make light of things.

“So uh, I finished your order a bit earlier than I was expecting,” Kanji grunts, handing Yu a paperclip containing his new outfit. “Something uh… happened, with the last one. The person who ordered it won’t be picking it up.”

“So I’ve heard…” replies Yu as he takes the paper clip hanger and wraps the tailored outfit around his arm. Kanji seemed to have put a lot of effort into that particular blanket he was making too.

“So uh, yeah. If you need any adjustments, or if you wanna bring your old outfit over to be repurposed, just uh...come over to the nook. Thanks.” Kanji exits the area swiftly after that, lumbering down the hall.

“Well, at least you got your new outfit,” Dojima sighs. “You better go try it on, it’ll feel a lot better than what you’re wearing now.”

Yu nods, heading upstairs and putting on the tailored suit. The fabric fits snugly to his arms, smooth without any stray threads. The itch of the wool clothes put together had been alleviated, and the newfound comfort is very much welcome.

Slipping the jacket over his arms, he notices that Kanji stitched in a hold for his new sewing needle into one of the pockets. The blade fits snug in the ring of fabric, feeling more complete.

“Well, you look a lot less stuffy now. You like it?” Dojima asks as Yu heads down the stairs. He nods once again, adjusting the collar of the outfit to his liking.

“That’s good. Looks like you’re really starting to fit in around here,” chuckles Dojima, though his expression drops again. “Here’s hoping we don’t lose it with all the prattle the humans are making. They haven’t put together where the corpse comes from yet according to the news, but you can’t be too careful.”

“I hope no one else ends up like that poor lady…” Nanako whimpers.

“I think we all are. Just keep your eyes on what the humans are doing, and be ready to move if anything suspicious happens,” Dojima repeats sternly.

The day again passes in a near meaningless movement of time. Everyone is tense and on edge no matter where Yu turns, and he takes to watching the news often as he did while growing up. Any new details that could lead back to the borrowers here could be fatal if left unattended.

Right now, a blurry image seems to be projected on the screen before him, a muffled voice talking about things that Yu just can’t understand. No matter how many times he watches these programs, he just can’t grasp how humans think.

He’d been interested in them since he was little, sure. The news always seemed to fascinate him watching it in the office whenever the humans were out, or distracted with their meetings and whatever else.

The younger him once yearned to learn as much as he could of the beings that he lived alongside under their noses, everything unique and different about them in ways he couldn’t comprehend. But he wanted to.

Although, through the news he got a sense of what humans were actually like. Story after story, murder, theft, assault, robbery… humans hurt other humans, a lot. And then he had been spotted, the desire for death in the eyes of the monster that found him…

What happened to Dojima and Nanako on top of things, Yu shouldn’t really care anymore. In his search for the truth of how humans were, he only discovered how awful they are to everything around them.

It’s because they’re so terrible that borrowers must stay hidden. With what they do to each other, the smaller ones hiding under their noses wouldn’t last a day. The horrors of being locked away and treated like animals never over exaggerated. Humans can, and will do those things.

Still, borrowers need to survive off of humans. They had shaped the world, leaving the borrowers to adapt to how they have made things. Rather than brave the giant world unfit for creatures their size, they adapted to lives under the thumbs of the apex predators of the world.

In that life, there is death. Tragedy can occur without warning. But that’s just what being a borrower is about. Not even a group of borrowers in this store could ever hope to take on the humans that move about it, and thus it is useless to fight the status quo.

“Are you alright?” Nanako asks him after a moment. “You’ve been staring at your dinner for a long time…”

“Just thinking about things,” Yu replies, taking a deep breath to clear his head.

“Okay…” Nanako goes back to picking at her own dinner.

Silence hangs in the air a while longer, before the bustling department store goes quiet. The lights outside flip into standby mode, and the quiet of closing hours finally sets in.

With everything winding down, Yu can just faintly hear the pattering of rain outside the store. He finishes his dinner with a small sigh, standing up.

With the store being empty, it should be safe to look around a bit outside. Yu would have to get back into the swing of borrowing things once he’d finally finished getting used to this place, should everyone here still be allowed to stay despite what had happened.

“I’m going out for a bit, Nanako. Be back soon,” Yu tells his cousin, who nods. She continues picking at her dinner, probably for the same reasons as everyone in the store are right now.

Heading out the back door, Yu moves around the sign and looks out at the sea of television sets around him.

What were those humans talking about earlier? Some kind of Midnight Channel? He’d only caught bits and pieces of the conversation, mostly because he wasn’t interested. Still, maybe there is something like that…

With so many televisions on display, perhaps it might work for at least one of them?

Looking up and down the row, he can hear the rumbling of a thunderstorm outside. The store is always eerily quiet at night, in contrast to the constant activity when open. It was almost creepy how much things changed when everything was off…

While thinking about this, the fuzzy sound of static begins to reach his ears. The television sets around him all begin buzzing and whining as yellow static permeates the screens around him.

“What the…?” Yu is taken aback by the sudden whining as an unfamiliar program begins to play on every TV in some kind of haunted ritual.

Blurry figures stand in the center of every screen, looking to be tortured by some unseen force, their skirt swaying in the heat of every unseen impact. Yu takes a step back, but the gruesome scene is displayed at every turn.

Though the only sound to come out of the televisions is the hissing static, Yu could almost hear the silhouette screaming as it’s battered at every side.

And the moment stops just as suddenly as it started, every set turning off in perfect unison. The silent pattering of the rain did little to ease his worry as he tried to process what had just happened.

The televisions were off, right? Was that the Midnight Channel those humans were discussing? Nothing made any sense in regards to the scene, leaving Yu wondering if it even happened at all with the abruptness of the situation.

Perhaps the sleepless nights had gotten to him, but the sick feeling in his gut follows him back to his room regardless of what he thinks or does.


	3. The World Inside the TV

“Those humans are restless today too,” Dojima notes as he peeks past the sign covering the back door.

Outside, a conglomeration of the giants were gathered in front of the various television sets, holding similarly complex devices themselves. There’s a bunch of clicking and flashing lights as they talk loud and nonsensically.

They all seem to be surrounding the auburn haired bean with the headphones around his neck, who appears to grow increasingly more annoyed with every stick or flashing device shoved in his face.

“Mr. Hanamura!” One of the humans asks. “You were one of the last individuals seen talking to the late Saki Konishi, correct?”

“So what if I was, huh?” the human hisses back. “I don’t have anything to do with this, I didn’t see anything! I couldn’t do anything…”

“Were you aware that this store your father manages is running the late Ms. Konishi’s family through the ringer, as well as many other stores in the Inaba area?” another reporter jabs a mike at the boy with resolve.

“The hell are you on about?” shouts Hanamura. “The economic world has nothing to do with Saki-senpai’s death, step the hell off!”

“What will Junes and it’s management do to compensate the family of it’s late employee?” a third reporter chimes in.

“Shut the hell up!”

The human finally snaps, shoving the reporter off him and backing off. “You never even knew her! You’re just asking me and my family cheap interview questions to boost your damn views with some kind of controversy!”

The reporters go silent for a moment, but the younger bean isn’t done. “Yeah, I know full well what’s going on between Junes and the business in this town. I hear it every goddamn day, and I’m going to be hearing it the rest of my life too! But that doesn’t give you the right to disrespect the life of a murder victim with your cheap eye catching tricks!”

The human visibly tenses further, the red rage in his eyes barely satiated as he talks to the group who’d gone silent.

“Saki Konishi was a hard working person, she had her goals and she worked to see them through, no matter what. Get to know her story before you ask someone who barely knew the full one himself before you go prodding into this crap again.”

With that, the human turns his back and leaves the interviewers behind, stomping off in a rage. The befuddled group of humans in turn slowly gather their equipment and leave the store, muttering amongst each other.

“Now a human’s been murdered, in the same fashion as the borrower we lost just a few days prior,” Dojima mutters. He heads back inside now that the chaos had cleared up, declaring the coast clear for the time being.

With the humans around being more alert and jittery, as well as the tinge of death in the air, things have become more difficult for the borrowers on the other end of things. Truly, the only safe time nowadays to borrow is in the dead of night, during closing time.

“Hey Dad?” Nanako chimes in as the other moves onto the couch. “Are we going to have to leave if things get worse?”

Dojima lets out a long sigh, looking to his feet. “I don’t know yet. Things are still relatively safe for now, as long as the humans keep fussing about each other too much to notice us…”

“What happens if someone else ends up like that Ms. Yamano lady?” Nanako prods further, her concern great for her home and her family.

“With how fast things get around with humans, I doubt any borrower is going to be safe if we’re discovered. Another one of us ending up there could expose us all,” Dojima admits with a heavy tone.

“Which is why we need to be careful,” Yu adds. “As long as everyone is extra careful, it shouldn’t come to that.”

Nanako nods along with a bit of enthusiasm. She seems a bit more comfortable around Yu now, finally warming up to him.

“I don’t really need to tell you this, but you guys should stay out of human related situations,” Dojima gruffly responds. “Feel free to watch the news all you want, but if it doesn’t concern Ms. Yamano, or other borrowers somehow turning up like her, I want you to avoid it.”

“Do you think the rumors about her lead to how she ended up like that?” Yu asks, remembering the gossiping borrowers from earlier that week.

“It might very well be if the rumors were any kind of basis. We don’t have any hard evidence that there was a human and borrower meeting with one another though,” elaborates the older borrower.

Not long after, the humming and jingles slow again as the hour grows late. Still silence soon fills the room, the hum of the lights outside dimming down as they get shut off.

“Guess the chaos is making them close early today,” Dojima notes as the quiet of the closed store sets in. “Well, gather your gear young man. Now’s as good a time as any to go out and gather supplies.”

“You’ll be okay watching the house while we’re out, right?” Yu turns to Nanako, who nods enthusiastically.

“You can count on me! I never open the door for strangers!” Nanako declares proudly.

“That’s my girl. We’ll be back soon,” Dojima assures. He gathers his things for borrowing, Yu close behind as he heads out the back door.

“I’m heading to the grocery department. If you get lost and can’t make it back before opening time, try and find the nearest nook to hide in until the coast is clear tomorrow night,” instructs the more experienced borrower.

With that, the two separate to look around the store for anything useful. A borrower must only take what won’t be missed, and with things being so tense, Yu must be cautious about what he considers taking…

As he moves around the refrigerator area for any leaking cold air, which would indicate a door not being closed properly and thus easy to open and take from, something unsettling seems to hit him.

The footsteps of something distant shakes the ground, and Yu is put on high alert. There’s still a human here, despite the store being closed. And it’s getting closer…

Now isn’t the time for hesitation. Being spotted here, now, would put everyone in the walls of this store in danger. Yu doesn’t think he can pull off a clean escape twice. The closest way back would be the way he came, through the electronics department.

Nodding to himself, he abandons his position and moves in the opposite direction of the human. It’s thundering footsteps tap in a rhythm down the hallway, and the longer stride means it would be catching up to him soon.

Whether he would be noticed or not is irrelevant. It could crush him under foot even if Yu was careful. The aisles don’t have many vantage points he can reach in time, and the floor was hardly the safest place to be at the moment.

The thundering grows louder as Yu makes a turn for the rows of television sets up ahead. The chords would give him something to climb and hide behind, so it was much better than nothing.

Out of breath from running full speed down the halls to get this far, Yu catches his breath under one of the shelves, just in time for the human to pass. Things go still for the smaller as it paces past the shelves, muttering to itself.

Keeping his hard, heavy breaths as low as he can, Yu watches the giant. It’s the auburn haired one he keeps seeing everywhere, with the headphones on its ears rather than around its neck this time. There’s comfort in knowing it couldn’t hear him at least, Yu knows as much as to what the device on its head does.

Breathing a little easier, he continues spying on it under the shelf. It seemed more interested in the televisions than anything else around them. Come to think of it, wasn’t it raining again tonight? There’s been a lot of that lately.

Is that what it’s here for? To observe the Midnight Channel? Would the same thing appear again? A silhouette writhing in pain once more.

Things go still as Yu concludes the thought. The fuzzy, yellow static of the Midnight Channel lights up every dim screen at once, the mantra of near supernatural TV sets once again displaying the same image around the room.

Although this time, the image itself is completely different. The faded figure in the center of the screen is blurred terribly, and hard to make out at first glance. The static fuzzes and ripples around the image, and the human in the center of the room takes a sharp inhale.

“It’s… me?” the beast breathes. With that assessment in mind, Yu can certainly see the silhouette on screen matching the outline of the human just in front of him. But, what on earth could that mean? Why show this human?

The boy leans in closer to the screen to get a better look at the fluctuating shadow on the television, but it leaves him wide open from the distraction. Another figure, one that Yu never even heard approach, stands behind the distracted boy.

The static fades from the TV as they approached, the sudden darkness shrouding everything about the person’s appearance as they throw out their arm and push the younger’s back, forcing them to fall forward.

But, rather than hit the screen, the boy’s face falls through it. As if the glass were made of thick liquid, the boy is pushed through by the rough hand on his back. The screen ripples as if the body being pushed through it were a stone cast into a pond.

The younger human vanishes through the screen, the vicious grin of the assailant reflected as the ripples fade to the solid matter it once was again.

Yu was certainly holding his breath, as the figure vanished into the dark midnight of the store, leaving not a trace of their presence there.

Once entirely certain the aisle was empty, Yu crawls out of his hiding place, climbing a nearby chord up to the TV where the human had vanished. There’s no way something that big could fit through it and disappear, right?

Feeling more and more compelled to attempt the trick himself, Yu gives way to his curiosity and places his hand on the screen.

In that moment, a splitting headache hits him, sapping him of his energy and forcing him to fall forward into the TV that had once again begun rippling at his touch. And, just like the human before him, Yu is completely engulfed by the glass screen.

Things began blurring passed him, flaring between black and white as if he was falling through a backdrop of stripes. Just barely ahead, an image begins coming in focus at the end of the last stripe, an image he was quickly approaching.

Below, he can see the younger human, and he’s headed straight toward them. Thus, his next move must be calculated to avoid alerting it and being spotted. Angling himself to be falling flat on his stomach, he throws his arms out.

The intent is to grab the collar of the human’s jacket. Then, he would slide down its back as quickly as possible and run for any possible cover below before it can turn around and catch him in his escape.

That isn’t what happens, though.

No, what actually happens, is that Yu gravely miscalculated how far away the human was from his falling spot. And, instead of grabbing the back of a massive jacket that should have been significantly larger than him, his hands grip open air before he lands on top of something that screams in pain.

“OOOOOOWWW!” yowls the voice underneath him. Something struggles underneath him before Yu is unceremoniously thrown off of the moving figure.

The borrower scrambles to his feet, extremely confused and bewildered as he looks down at what exactly he landed on. He can barely believe what he’s seeing in that moment, because it seemed impossible.

There’s no way a human can just shrink to a borrower’s size just by being thrown into a television set, right? But, there it was. The human that had vanished into the TV was at his feet, groaning and no bigger than your average borrower.

The bean does eventually get to its feet, numbly pulling the headphones off it’s head. It stretches its back with a groan and turns to Yu, looking a lot less than pleased.

“What’s the big idea landing on top of me, huh?” bites the human angrily, glaring up, yes up, at Yu with an indignant look.

The borrower, on the other hand is still chewing on the information that a human had shrunk to a height shorter than him. Strange and unnatural seemed to be par for the course at the Junes Department Store borrowers thus far.

“Who the hell even are you?” the human snaps at him, bringing Yu back to the present moment. Sure, it may look amiable at a more reasonable height like this, but it’s still a human. Humans and borrowers don’t mix.

“None of your business,” Yu replies coldly to the bean, turning around and moving to leave.

“Hey, you can’t just leave like that! Get back here, asshole!” Yosuke replies angrily, chasing after the borrower anyway.

Yu rolls his eyes, trying to pick up the pace as he moves through the murky fog around the two of them. The insistent human continues to follow him regardless, shouting after the speed walking Yu with every step.

“Slow the hell down, damn it! It’s hard enough to breathe in here without running!” the human shakes its head, trying to clear it. “Look. I have no idea who the hell you are, but we’re both trapped in this… freaky… television… dimension. I’m just saying we should work together to get out!”

“I don’t associate with humans,” Yu spits with finality, averting his gaze from the boy once more.

“What’s that supposed to mean? You make like, no sense,” grumbles the other party. “But come on, hear me out. We’d find a way out easier if we worked together, right? I’ll forgive you for using me as a shock absorber back there!”

The human gives him a pleading stare, the look in their eyes brokering no argument with him. It appears that no matter what he does, Yu is stuck with this particular human. With a shake of his head, he submits to his fate, knowing full well the danger this might put him in.

“Fine. Just until we get home, I’ll work with you,” relents the borrower. He could feel a pit in his stomach knowing that he has to work with a human, every single rule he’d been taught being broken in an instant.

“Thank God, you’re reasonable,” the bean sighs with relief. “The name’s Yosuke Hanamura, by the way. Thought you should know if we’re going to be working together.”

Yu grunts and keeps walking, not bothering to wait up for the incessant human.

“Woah, hey come on! You’re not going to introduce yourself back?” Yosuke calls after him, running once again to catch up with the much more moody of the pair.

“Yu Narukami.” The borrower huffs at Yosuke. “Don’t bother remembering it.”

“Why not? Man, you are one weird guy…” mutters Yosuke as he rubs the back of his head with a confused look.

“Humans aren’t supposed to know I exist in the first place. It’s better for both of us if you forget me once we leave here.” Yu fixes another cold gaze at Yosuke, who takes a step back.

“You’re saying that you’re not human?” Yosuke’s confusion only worsens as he looks Yu up and down for any indication otherwise. “You seem pretty normal to me.”

As they walk together, they soon find themselves passing an odd doorway into another area in this TV World.

Inside sits a single, lone chair. Above it, a patterned scarf hangs above tied in a less than comforting knot, while cut up pictures scatter the walls of the place. It was a normal sized room for borrower standards despite the appearance, but to Yosuke…

“Holy crap! That chair is like, the size of an apartment complex!” He runs up to it, patting one of the wooden legs to see if it’s an illusion. He knocks on it a few times to confirm the existence of such a large piece of furniture.

“It’s just a chair, nothing special,” Yu points out, watching the human run around the object with confusion and surprise. It’s then he comes to the conclusion that humans are terrible at being borrowers. This one with his yelling and running around in plain sight would have been spotted instantly should a normal sized human been here.

“But, but look at how big it is!” Yosuke once again yells, causing Yu to cringe at how loud he was once again. “That is not your normal sized chair, dude.”

“I’m more concerned about the noose that’s tied to the ceiling above it,” Yu sighs, shaking his head. He looks up at the scarf hanging from the ceiling, tilting his head. Had he seen the pattern on it before…?

“This place keeps getting more and more screwed up!” Yosuke wails, looking around at all the cut up photos. They all seemed to depict the same person, but the face specifically is scored by the cut paper in each one.

“Someone certainly had a grudge…” Yu notes, looking at the photos. He’d never seen the attire the person was wearing, so it was safe to assume they were a human in each picture.

“I’m getting really sick of this place. There’s no exit here, so we should really just leave,” whimpers Yosuke.

“That I can agree with,” Yu decides, moving back to the doorway and joining Yosuke in leaving.

Thick fog continues to surround the pair as they move through the unfamiliar landscape. With every step, Yu wonders how long it’s been. Will his uncle and cousin worry if he’s gone too long? Is there even a way out?

“...I’m getting real tired of walking, man…” Yosuke pipes up with a groan after a while. “This is the way we came from, right? Can’t see a damn thing through this fog…”

“I can’t be certain, but as long as we keep moving, we’ll end up somewhere,” Yu reasons, looking around for any sort of landmark through the fog. But, it’s just too thick, he can’t even tell if they’re going anywhere.

This is the last time he lets his curiosity get the better of him. Seeing as he’s stuck working with a human in a world filled with fog too dense to see and inch in front of his face, it’s a valid assessment.

Eventually, they do come across something. A shape around their size forms in the fog, but it’s hardly human. It’s large and round, though it appears to have limbs and two rounded ears on the top of its head.

“Ok, what is that?” Yosuke squints to try and make it out as it steps through the fog with ease toward them. It’s still hard to make out with the stuff being everywhere, but Yu can somewhat make out the blue and red, clownlike configuration.

The creature stops a few inches away from them, looking the pair up and down with it’s large eyes. It seems skeptical of them at first, before it sighs and mutters to itself.

“What are you supposed to be? Some kind of teddy bear?” Yosuke notes as he looks at the creature with a more critical eye.

“Gah! They already know my name!” the creature exclaims in fright. It turns tail and runs from the pair, deeper into the fog.

“Wh-hey! Get back here!” Yosuke cries after it, picking up his own pace and chasing after the thing.

Not wanting to be left behind, Yu runs after the two as well. Some darker shapes are barely visible in the fog as they run, looking like a city skyline if one squints enough to focus.

“Hey! Teddy bear thing! Wait up! I want answers damn it!” Yosuke calls ahead, though the bear had finally stopped at another strange entrance. It was different from the other Yu and Yosuke entered earlier, but still had that same, unsettling aura about it.

“My name isn’t “Teddy Bear,” it’s just Teddie,” the creature mumbles. “And it's dangerous for your kind in these parts. If the fog clears, then…”

“Then it would be a relief to see where we’re going! I can’t see a thing in this damn fog…” mutters Yosuke. The thick, yellow fog was getting rather annoying at this point.

“No, that’s not it! If the fog clears and you guys are in here, then… then…!” Teddie grips his head with terror at that thought.

“What will happen to us if the fog clears?” Yu presses. If something dangerous is going to happen, he’d like to know what.

“You’ll end up like the other two that fell in here…” Teddie admits, still holding his head.

“The other two?” Yosuke takes a sharp breath, a thought crossing his mind. “You mean, that unnamed woman and.. And Saki-senpai? Were they here?”

Teddie looks between the pair and manages a shrug with his more worried disposition. “I just know that this happened twice before. It got all noisy when they came, and they went silent when the fog cleared in this world…”

Yosuke grows visibly more tense when Teddie explains his side of the story. But it’s not out of fear. No, the human is angry, visibly upset about the revelation before him. This world must have been what killed the two of them. And they’re next.

“Hey. Teddie was it?” Yosuke finds a way to keep his tone even. “One of the people that fell in here was close to me. I want to know what happened to her. Can you lead me to where she was last?”

Teddie perks up at that. Though he has a sympathetic look on his stuffed toy like face, he soon nods with resignation. “I can do that.”

The bear-like creature soon pulls out two pairs of glasses. “You’re going to need these if you want to see everything. They’ll help you look through the fog in this world.”

Yu takes a pair for himself, slipping the lenses over his eyes. The change is almost instantaneous, the yellow fog surrounding them seeming to vanish as he puts on the pair of glasses.

Yosuke seems to have a similar reaction, looking around the area with renewed surprise. He seems focused on the sign overtop the entrance, now looking more like a building with the fog rendered see-through by the glasses.

“It’s way too big to be natural… but this looks like the liquor store that Saki-senpai’s parents own…” he mutters solemnly.

“That’s just great…” Teddie mutters, seeming more scared. Is he… backing away? “Now you can get all the info you need out of there, while I maintain a bear-y safe distance.”

“Was that supposed to be a pun?” Yosuke blinks. “Hey, where the hell are you going!?”

“I’d rather not end up Shadow food, thank you bear-y much,” Teddie huffs. “You guys have fun now!”

“Shadow food? Wait, are there monsters in this place?!” Yosuke turns to yell at Teddie angrily, the real fear starting to creep in.

“They’re kind of already here…” Teddie whispers in a shy yet terrified voice. At his words, the squelching of some kind of slime or goo can be heard as something growls behind them.

Turning around, a terrifying sight beholds both human and borrower, a beast made of black goo and a hollow eyed mask for a face stares down at them. It towers over them with a malice unknown, before lunging at the pair.

As the beast comes at them, while Yosuke screams at the top of his lungs beside him, Yu can feel the inconvenient headache coming back to him at the worst possible time. He closes his eyes and grips his forehead in agony.

_I am thou…_

Yu gasps. Was that his voice? No, it couldn’t have been. But..

_Thou art I…_

It sounds like him, is it his own voice? Can anyone else hear it?

_The time has come._

In that moment, he remembers flashes of the dream he had on his way to his new home, after the narrow escape. And the fortune told to him...

_Open thine eyes, and call forth what is within._

The voice seems to command him, and through the piercing headache, Yu manages to open his eyes. At his feet, a rectangle wreathed in blue appears at his feet. No this, it’s one of those tarot cards from his dream…

He can see his reflection in it’s blank face, his eyes bright yellow before a smile finds itself onto his face. A surge of power tingles under his veins as he begins to call it forth.

“Per…”

The sensation of power becomes like electricity under his skin as he begins to call for it.

“So…”

The large card at his feet glows with the renewed power coming to the surface, the yellow-eyed reflection in its surface fading as it glows brighter.

“Na.”

All at once, the power explodes forth in a powerful pillar of blue flame that engulfs Yu. The release of the electric power causes him to scream in order to release a bit of the intense pressure his body is suddenly subjected to.

Something rises from within the card, taking Yu up with it, towering over all those present as the light slowly begins fading. An imposing figure, with a steel helmet and a long coat swaying passed its knees appears before the shadows that had appeared.

Just atop it’s shoulder, Yu finds his balance on the monster he seemingly has control over, gripping the collar of the thing’s coat and resting a hand on its metal helmet. The grin hadn’t left his face as he throws his hand out.

“Izanagi!”

As if responding to the call of it’s master, the giant warrior pulls out a blade and cleaves through the goop of one of the shadows before it.

The power still flowing under his skin as he commands his Persona, Yu can’t stop the exhilaration he feels as he grips the collar for balance. He feels his gaze sharpen as he calls forth his next attack.

Another wave of the hand, and Izanagi calls forth a bolt of lightning, searing the shadow badly as it melts into nothing before him.

At the feet of the creature, Yosuke and Teddie can only watch in awe and amazement, seeing such a small individual command a being no less than fifteen times bigger than him with ease, riding on its shoulder without fear.

“Holy shit…” Yosuke mutters under his breath.


End file.
